RHAMNAGE^. 06 



Reissekia), as well as those his colleague Fenzl ^ had just established, 

 viz. Trymaliwm and Spyridium, also Helinus E. Met., till then re- 

 maining m manuscript in herbaria, OcAefojoMaofPoEPPiG, Discaria of 

 "W. HooEEE,^ KarwinsMa of Zuccarini,^ Adolphia of Meissnbe,* and 

 Talguenea, observed in Chili by Miers.^ The latter, revising in 

 a detailed monograph the entire group of Colletiece,^ which then 

 comprised five genera, retains a sixth, Trevoa, established at the same 

 time as Talguenea. The number of genera is thus raised to thirty- 

 one. Eeissek, studying this family for the Flora BrasiUensis,'' found 

 there another new type, Rhamnidium ; he afterwards established the 

 Australian genus Btenanthemum? All are adopted in his Genera by 

 J. Hooker,^ who, in the same work, creates the two African types 

 Nesiota and Lasiodiscus, and revives the old generic name Sarcom- 

 phalus P. Br. With him, then, the Rhamnacece number thirty-seven 

 genera, including Smythea of Seemann,^'' and Microrhamnus of A. 

 Geay,^* with us only a CondaUa with a corolla. The genera 

 Ummenosperma of F. Mueller ^^ and Macrorhamnus, which we have 

 just proposed, 13 complete the total of thirty-eight. This number is 

 probably too great, regard being had to the species known. It 

 consists of a group very closely natural in most of its parts, the 

 generic differences of which are frequently of small value; and it is 

 probable that a certain number of genera actually retained may dis- 

 appear as intermediate species are observed which may serve as 

 natural links between many of them.^* 



Whatever may be the limits of the genera, those of the tribes 

 hitherto adopted have been singularly effaced by the most recent 

 discoveries. The Colletiece represent the series best characterised by 

 habit and organisation of perianth, but among them, Adolphia has 



' Emm. Fl. Sueg. (1837). '^ Adansmia, xi. (1874). 



2 Bot.Mise.i. (1830). " For example the various genera of the 



' Plant. Nov. Fase. i. (1832). group Colletieas, Among the Shamneie, the 



■* (?eM. 70 (1836-1843). Alphitonias seemed, at first to constitute a per- 



" Trav. in Ghil. and la Plata.ii. {1826). fectly distinct genus. Now that we know 

 ^ On the tribe OoUetiece, with some Obs. on the better certain Colubrinas with a ferruginous 

 Seed in .... Rham. {Ann. Nat. Sist. ser. 3, v. 76 ; down, smooth seeds persisting on the placenta 



Contrib. i. 230, t. 33-24). after the fall of the cocci, and an ovary present- 



' Mmrt. Fl. Sras. Ehamn. (1861). ing the same adherence, the distinction he- 



' XwSKcEa, xxix. (1867-68). tween the two genera becomes scarcely appre- 



' Ckn. 371, Ord. 49 (1862). ciahle. The fruit oi Nesiota once known, this 



'» Bonplandia (1861). type becomes very difficult to separate otherwise 



" Fl. Wright, p. i. (1862). than as a section of Fhylica with broad whitish 



^ Fragm,: Phyt. Austral, iii. (1862-63). leaves, etc. 



VOL. VI, 5 



